BOOK CLUB: MLK, United Fruit Company & Serbian Protesters

Since Jersey Shore Season 3 is still more than a month away, here are a few books to help you pass the time:


AN ACT OF STATE: THE EXECUTION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING - William F. Pepper

On the evening of April 4 1968, Martin Luther King was in Memphis supporting a workers' strike. By the end of the day, top-level army snipers were in the position to knock him out if ordered. Two military officers were in place on the roof of a fire station near the Lorraine Motel, to photograph the events. Two black firemen had been ordered not to report to duty that day and a black Memphis Police Department detective on surveillance duty in the fire station was physically removed from his post and taken home. Dr King's room at the motel was changed from a secluded ground-floor room to number 306 on the balcony. Lloyd Jowers, owner of Jim's Grill which backed on to the motel from the other side of the street, had already received $100,000 in cash for his agreement to participate in the assassination. He was to go out into the brush area behind the grill with the shooter and take possession of the gun immediately after the fatal shot was fired. MORE

BANANAS: HOW THE UNITED FRUIT COMPANY SHAPED THE WORLD - Peter Chapman

In this gripping exploration of corporate maneuvering and subterfuge, Peter Chapman shows how the importer United Fruit set the precedent for the institutionalized power and influence of today's multinational companies. Bananas! is a sharp and lively account of the rise and fall of this infamous company, arguably the most controversial global corporation ever – from the jungles of Costa Rica to the dramatic suicide of its CEO, who leapt from an office on the forty-fourth floor of the Pan Am building in New York City. From the marketing of the banana as the first fast food, to the company’s involvement in an invasion of Honduras, the Bay of Pigs crisis, and a bloody coup in Guatemala, Chapman weaves a dramatic tale of big business, political deceit, and outright violence to show how one company wreaked havoc in the “banana republics” of Central America, and how terrifyingly similar the age of United Fruit is to our age of rapid globalization. MORE

And for my Serbian peoples:

KANDŽE - Marko Vidojković

Radnja ove moderne bajke smeštena je u Beograd, u vreme građanskih protesta 1996-97. Vidojkovićev junak je student treće godine prava, fanatični učesnik protesta protiv izborne krađe. Izgladneo, odrpan i izneveren od ostatka sveta, on svakodnevno ide na demonstracije i bezglavo uleće u najopasnije situacije pomiren sa besmislom života. Sve će se promeniti kad upozna neobičnu devojku smeđe kose i odsečenih trepavica…. „Kandže“ na nov način govore o studentskom protestu devedesetih razobličujući ga do kraja, i bezobrazno promovišu princip revolucionarne pravde i pravilo da je u politici i ljubavi sve dozvoljeno. MORE